Repairing Cork Floors

Cork is a highly resilient flooring, because its surface has a lot of give. This means that when a heavy objects falls on the floor, the cork will usually absorb the blow. This prevents most dents and scrapes. However, cork won’t prevent all damage.

During the life of your cork flooring, you may notice some dents and scratches that you want to repair. There are two main ways you can do this. The first is doing a simple spot repair. The second is replacing the entire plank where the damage occurred. This can only be done to cork floors that have been installed using interlocking planks. Because that is the most common type of installation for cork floors, that is what we will discuss below.

Spot Repairing your Cork Floors

This is the best option for minor damages. It is a quick and less expensive way to repair minor scrapes and dents on your floor.

Step 1: Pick up a wood filler that best matches the tint of your cork flooring. You may want to test it out on a section of your floor people will be less likely to notice just in case it doesn’t match.

Step 2: Simply fill in the dents or scratches using your wood filler.

Step 3: Once your wood filler has dried completely, use fine-grit sandpaper to smooth out the wood filler and make it level with your cork flooring.

Step 4: Using a rag you don’t want to keep nice, apply a matching stain on the area you applied and sanded the wood filler.

Step 5: To protect your floors from undue wear or moisture apply a polyurethane finish that is approved by the manufacture of your cork flooring.

Replacing a Cork Plank

If the damage to your floor is more substantial, it may be in your best interest to replace an entire plank rather than doing minor spot repair. Fortunately the process is fairly simple when dealing with interlocking planks.

Step 1: If there is any shoe molding around the damaged cork plank, remove it now.

Step 2: Simply unsnap the damaged plank from the other planks around it.

Step 3: Take your new plank and snap into place where the old one was removed.

Step 4: Reinstall any shoe molding you had to remove before starting.

Step 5: There is no need to add a finish. The plank should come prefinished and protected.